The Love of Ice and Fire: Tale 1
by NeblixSaber
Summary: The tale of Neblix The Wolf who has no memory beyond the age of 14. When he is faced with certain death, his memories flood back to him and a great deception long ago is now finally revealed.
1. Life and Death

The Love of Ice and Fire

Life and Death

Tale 1

--

Neblix The Wolf belongs to me.

All others belong to Sega.

--

(Station Square Woods; 5:00 AM

The trees softly shook with the gentle breeze as the forest animals ran around and played games of tag. Neblix The Wolf was napping on a large tree branch close to a dirt path leading to a road by the city. He didn't like civilization, but he lived here as it served as a nice home, for the time being. A squirrel climbed down from the higher reaches of the tree and accidentally dropped an acorn on the wolf's head.

"Ow!" Neblix sat up and rubbed his head as he woke up. He looked at the squirrel and chuckled to himself. "Watch it, Chichi!" It was a playful name he had given the squirrel a few months ago. He could recognize the squirrel because of the odd, dark-brown mark on the squirrels back.

Chichi had grown to understand Neblix's simple commands, such as "Go!" and "Come here!" and even "Watch it!". It put its head down and gave a low chattering noise, which it had miraculously taught Neblix that it meant "My bad!".

Neblix scratched the squirrel's head and dropped out of the tree, landing with a soft thud. He was an expert with acrobatics, so it was very easy for him to pick up the acorn and swing back up to the branch. "Here ya go, buddy." He handed it to the squirrel and it grabbed the nut with it's puny hands.

"Go!" The squirrel climbed down and fled deeper into the forest. Of course it would return, it had grown fond of Neblix's tree. Or maybe it lived in the tree. Who knows?

He once again leaped off of the tree into another one, and did it again, and again, and again. This was his morning exercise to test if he had enough energy to survive for the day. After the tenth time, he felt a little tired. A sign that a small breakfast would do the trick. He whistled two times and Chichi came out once again, but with an apple. "Thanks, Chichi!" Chichi had also learned that "Thanks!" was an apparent sign of gratitude. It once again fled into the forest without hesitation. Chichi had gotten used to the routine, so he knew when to come and go.

Before Neblix bit into the apple, he looked around him. The sunshine came through the trees in a direction that meant it was early morning. He hates it when Chichi wakes him up this early. He walked to a nearby clearing where a small stream flowed slowly and dipped his hand in. After a few seconds, he gripped a fish. He took out a small knife he bought in the city. While he hated civilization, it was the only thing that provided him the resources to survive. He cut the skin of the fish off, as well as the head and the fins. He cleaned the fish until it was ready to cook. Even though he was a wolf, he hated raw meat. He walked through the tall trees to another small clearing with dirt and rocks instead of grass. He used this space to make fires which were used to cook food or to warm himself. Sitting in the clearing was a spit. He stuck the fish on it and took out a lighter to set fire to the twigs beneath it. He snacked on his apple as he rotated the fish until it was good to eat. Without hesitation, he munched on the fish while walking back to Chichi's tree, as he called it. Suddenly, he felt a strong rush as a blue blur raced by him. His tail straightened, which meant it was a defense alert. Then, he had realized that he had only seen that kind of speed once. Sonic Boom. His old friend, Sonic The Hedgehog, had decided to visit Neblix in his home after 3 long years. In the distance, the blue figure slowed and came back, but slowly this time. It was still pretty quick, so slow wouldn't really be the right word.

"Hey, Neblix! Long time no see, huh?" Sonic said with his trademark smile and the dirt still in the air behind him.

"Yo, Sonic. Haven't seen you in a while." Neblix smiled and stretched his arms out. "What brings you here?"

"Actually..." He gave a fake smile as they both heard a high pitched voice behind them.

"Soooooooooooonic! Where aaaaaaaaaare you?" It was Amy Rose, the girl who was so crazy about Sonic she would literally kill to just stand near him when he was in her sight. And that was the problem.

"You gotta hide me, man!" Sonic curled up and spun in place, which he always did when he felt cornered.

"Sorry, but when there's a pink girl with a hammer involved, it's every man for himself!" Neblix laughed.

"You're no help!" Sonic yelled at him while laughing. He turned and ran at a slower pace than usual, knowing that Amy still wouldn't catch up. Neblix followed him, able to run that fast if he quickened his normal pace, which was maybe 30 miles per hour.

They both enjoyed the run. The soft dirt under them, the gentle breeze, the coolness of the winter air, it was paradise to Sonic. He saw a cliff ahead, and slowed to a halt.

Neblix didn't notice the cliff as he had his eyes closed. He noticed Sonic had stopped running from the absence of the sound of him running, but he didn't realized he was running off of a cliff until it was too late. He opened his eyes, and he was five feet from the edge. Not enough to slow down.

"Neblix, WATCH OUT!" Sonic called out.

"Not again..." Neblix sighed to himself as his feet left the ground and his velocity increased as he dropped like a shooting star to the city below. If only he had his powers, he could easily land with, well, ease. "NO!" He cursed himself for thinking such a thing. Using his powers would be just as deadly. He had no control over them. But he was going to die anyway, so there was no risk. It was life or death. He chose life. He put his hands together as he reached his terminal velocity. The city grew closer. The cliff was very high, 20,000 feet above sea level to be exact. It would take about 45 more seconds for him to reach solid ground, civilization, and his death. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He remembered how he had used his powers three years ago. He remembered the flow of his energy. Ice began to form at his fingertips. It grew and spread into a cone in front of him, an ice drill to protect him. He focused harder and made the ice tougher and stronger. Before he knew it, he heard a crashing sound and the panic of humans. The ice drill stopped in front him and shattered. But instead of the shards flying out in different directions, he absorbed them into his body to make a shock absorber. He passed out from the intense nausea of the fall, but he smiled before, knowing that he would live.


	2. Conscious

The Love Of Ice and Fire

Conscious

Tale 1

--

Neblix The Wolf and the Ice Spirit belong to me.

All others belong to Sega.

--

(Flashback

Little 6 year old Neblix ran down the dark path in the cold ice cave. He needed to find civilization, somewhere he could survive. He needed someone to take care of him. He couldn't see anything, just the clear, cold floor and the dark glacier walls. He stepped through an arch opening, and a powerful wave swept over him. Feeling nauseous, he stopped. It felt like he just crossed through time to another place. Another _dimension_. He looked around, his furry black face covered with dry tears. The lighting changed and found he was in a large room. It had mosaics on every single space on the walls. They told stories of brave warriors who died in battle, legends of previous kings, but there was one mosaic that caught his eye.

It was very large, 20 by 20 square feet to be exact. He couldn't count that, of course, but he remembered that his father once showed him this mosaic, but in a different place. In a similar place, almost like... _a throne room._ Wherever he was, he was in some sort of castle that was home to royal people. But judging by the walls in the hallway, it hadn't been occupied for a long time.

The mosaic had a picture of a black wolf and a purple...

"What's that?" He whispered in his cute little boy voice. He wondered what it was. It didn't look like a wolf or anything else he'd ever seen, so he was guessing it was some other type of person. He had a faint memory of a similar figure, but red, looking at him with eyes filled with hatred. The memory scared him, so he shooed it away and looked at the mosaic again.

They were standing together and two cute castle drawings, one red and one blue,were under them. A line was next to this, so he assumed it was another panel telling a similar story, but with the same people and the same time period. It had a large red fireball pummeling down onto the same red castle that was shown before. A red figure had his hands up under the fireball and a...

"_GREEN wolf?"_ Neblix thought. The thought gave him a chill. Is it possible to be a green wolf? He continued to interpret the picture. The green wolf had his hands held toward the fireball as if to stop it with his bare hands. The purple figure he saw before was lying to the side, as well as a white, a red, a yellow, a creamy color, a blue, and a pink figure. What were all those figures doing there? Had the green wolf killed them? Or did the red thing kill them? Or were they even dead at all?

"Hello, young one." came a familiar voice behind him.

Eager to have finally met someone, he turned around, only to see a powerful light.

"Huh?" Neblix said softly.

"Yes, I spoke to you. When someone says hello, you say hello back." instructed the voice.

"Uh... hi!" Neblix responded. "Who are you?"

"Call me the Ice Spirit. I am here to guide you."

"Guide me? You mean tell me where to go and what to do?" asked six year old Neblix. He had no idea how he knew so much, he just did.

"Yes, little one. Take my power. Use it to help you." A smaller ball of blue light came down to him and shot straight into his heart. He yelped.

Another Neblix The Wolf popped out of the floor. This one had darker streaks on his hair and his eyes were red. He, no, IT, smiled evilly. It wore a gray jacket and black pants, and was wearing gray shoes.

It walked toward him.

The real Neblix reacted and backed away.

"Let the energy flow into you. Destroy your inner evil!"

The other Neblix (we'll call him Dark Neblix) jumped onto him and began to punch him repeatedly.

"Get away!" Neblix screamed.

Dark Neblix did not stop, but laughed evilly.

"I SAID..." He began to glow green. "GET AWAAAAAY!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and out of the floor and walls broke large shards of ice. A powerful wave came out of Neblix and Dark Neblix screamed and vaporized in the green wave. He then floated in midair and green lines began to cover Neblix. They had a strange pattern, almost like tribal markings he had seen in books his mother used to read to him. He suddenly stopped glowing and fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

(Station Square, 5:24 A.M.

"AAAAAH!!" Neblix screamed as he sat up. He looked around. He was back in the city. He looked at himself. He was seventeen again.

'_What was that all about? Was that... me?' _Neblix pondered that thought until he realized he wasn't alone.

There was quite a crowd, from businessmen to children to drunken boxers. Wait. DRUNKEN BOXERS?!

That was alarming. Two drunken boxers walked up to Neblix as he got up and said, "Fo... watto!" they both kicked him in the face. Without hesitation, Neblix grabbed both legs and held them in the air. He looked behind them and saw the ocean. He must have landed in front of the train station. The drunken boxers were puzzled, so they tried to pull away, but without succeeding. With a grin on his face, Neblix threw their legs into the air, spun around and kicked both of them with the heel of his shoe. He shot heavy blocks of ice out of them while doing so, so the drunken boxers went flying into the ocean.

"Outta my way, coming through!" shouted a familiar high pitched voice. Amy Rose pushed her way through the awestruck crowd and reached Neblix in his state of drunken victory. Er... victory.

"Yo Neblix, did you do that?" Sonic was also with her and pointed to the two drunken figures in the distance, still hurling in the air.

"Yup. Got a problem?" Neblix said sarcastically.

The crowd looked at Sonic. Of course they expected the hero of the city to say he had a problem. Sonic gulped and cleared his throat.

"As long as you don't do it again!" Sonic shouted. And then he dashed over and whispered in Neblix's ear. "But seriously, feel free to do it again! That was awesome!"

Neblix laughed.

"Are you okay, Neblix?"Amy asked. She looked a lot older. 3 years to be exact. She had longer hair and it was a darker shade of pink. She was wearing a red sweatshirt with pink jeans.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Amy." Neblix grinned at her, and slid over to Sonic who was standing on a platform watching the drunken boxers finally fall in the water. "When did she start wearing jeans?"

"I dunno. She just wore it one day and then she loved it, so she wore it every other day. 2 years ago, maybe." Sonic replied, laughing at the boxers who were struggling to swim.

Now that Neblix though of it, Sonic looked a lot older too. His spikes were thicker and he had black streaks on them. They were pointed upward at the end. He was also more of a navy blue than his normal blue. Sonic was wearing a black leather jacket and some black jeans, similar to Neblix's.

All of the sudden, Neblix felt dizzy and weak. "Oooh my god... what is this?" Neblix stepped forward and backward, struggling to keep his balance. He started dripping water from all over. He felt like his body had no structure anymore... like he had _no bones._ He fell to the ground gasping for breath.

"Oh my god, what's the matter with him?" Amy screamed.

"Neblix! NEBLIX!" Sonic knelt down. "What's happening?"

"Sonic! I have no time left. That spell froze my bones and they just..." he gasped again. "_melted. _I have to use _that_ freezing spell. I'm sorry, but I have no choice..."

Sonic looked at Amy, who began to frown. But she nodded. He then looked at Neblix and nodded. Neblix began to float in midair and Sonic backed away. His eyes glowed as with the rest of his body. In an instant, he was encased in a cold block of ice.


	3. Frozen Memories

The Love of Ice and Fire

Frozen Memories

Tale 1

--

Neblix The Wolf and Skyra belong to me.

All others belong to Sega.

--

(Spirit World

Neblix was lying on what seemed to be the dirt path by his tree. He must've fallen out of the tree while having a nightmare, and he sighed to himself. But something about this nightmare seemed real.

'_It couldn't be_,' Neblix thought to himself. If it was real, why wasn't he frozen? A small bell rang in his head and he looked up at the sky. But there wasn't a sky at all. Instead, the atmosphere was bright and yellowish, and where the sky would be was an empty white light. That was _definitely_ not normal.

Where the hell was he? And why did this place resemble his home so much?

"Hello, Neblix." A bright white light appeared in front of him, the same one he saw in his vision.

_'When someone says hello, you say hello back.' _That memory repeatedly flashed in his head. He shook it off and replied, "Hello. Have we met before?"

The light made a small laughing noise. "Yes, we have. I have come to help you."

"The ice spirit... so that wasn't a vision in a dream... it was real and it was a..."

"It was a memory, yes, and the memory was of you when you were six."

"But why? Why did I suddenly remember something like that?" Neblix demanded an answer from her.

"Neblix, I sense a grave danger approaching in the near future." The spirit answered.

"What danger? And where am I?" Neblix began sweating as he had so many questions. He could tell that this spirit had been watching him his whole life, and she could tell him anything he wanted to know. He looked down and whispered, "Who am I?"

"All your questions will be answered soon enough." The spirit paused for a moment. "I will begin with your last question. But please, sit down." All of the sudden, the setting changed and they were now in a blue room with a huge snowflake pattern on the smooth floor. In the room was a chair made of ice, made to resemble a throne.

He nodded and sat down on the chair, which was, of course, icy cold.

"Your name is Neblix The Wolf. You are named after your mother's father, who was King of the Ice Kingdom, Frostaria."

Neblix was stunned at this information.

"You are of the Royal Frostarian Family. Do you remember that mosaic you were looking at when you were six?"

How could he not forget? He was six a few minutes ago. Or so to speak. He nodded and said, "Like it was just a few minutes ago."

"Very good. You remember the small black figure standing with the purple one?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anythi..." He went pale and glared at the spirit.

"That figure is you."

"ME?!"

"Yes, you. You are the prince of Frostaria and heir to the throne. The first son of King Frost, your _father_."

His head had so many questions that it was going to explode.

"That purple figure you were standing with, that is the princess of the Fire Kingdom. You were and are supposed to marry her. And that is what started the war." The spirit went quiet, almost as if mentioning it was painful.

"What war?"

"You really don't remember much, do you?"

"Nothing."

"Oh well... The King of the Fire Kingdom Emberania started a war with Frostaria, who had never done anything to harm them because of his selfishness. That mosaic was an ancient prophecy that told what was to be done with you and the Emberanian princess. Unfortunately, out of the king's arrogance, he wanted his daughter to marry one of the same kind."

"The same... kind?" The memory of the purple figure's shape flashed in his mind.

"Neblix... the Emberanian kingdom is made entirely of _cats_."

_'That's what the purple figure was! A cat!' _Neblix felt a little content, now knowing what the figure was. He had not ever seen a cat until the _incident_ three years ago. He nodded for her to continue.

"The Frostarian people are people loyal to the prophecy. A few years before you born, Emberania's king had passed away. When the new king began to rule, he was a wonderful king. He always helped the poor, he always put his people before himself, he loved everyone. He became great friends with your father. They always helped each other and they always shared their resources. He even brought his whole kingdom to the Ceremony of Birth when you were born. A few days after the ceremony... his own daughter was born."

"But I still don't understand why he would wage WAR for something as trivial as marriage... I mean, it was supposed to happen, right?"

"Apparently the king had other plans... as soon as he heard your father speak of the prophecy, he turned on him immediately. He sent his army to destroy our kingdo-" The spirit stopped and sighed.

"What do you mean, "our" kingdom? Were you part of it...?" Neblix pressed in, piecing it all together.

"Five years before you were born... your father had a daughter. The Princess of Frostaria, she was a delightful little girl. Her name was Skyra. She always looked after you during the war and she was so kind to you."

There it was. He detected a hint of pride in the spirit's voice and he pressed further, now knowing the truth. "What happened to my "sister"?"

"Your sister... well..." The spirit saw a grin on Neblix's face and gave up the charade. The light began to take a solid shape, a shape well known to Neblix as some of his memories slipped into his mind. "Is right here!" The shape lost it's light, and a white wolf was smiling in its place.

"Hiya, Sis!" Neblix grinned as the white wolf rushed up to him and hugged him tightly. "Finally! Being a mysterious light takes a lot of energy out of you!" She giggled and hugged him once more. The room changed back to its previous setting in Neblix's forest.

"Why wait six years to tell me I had a living relative, Skyra?" Neblix pulled away from his sister and sat on the branch he was supposedly sleeping on earlier in the "real" world.

"Well, you know, I didn't want to reveal myself until I was sure it was safe."

"Safe?" Neblix hopped down, slightly annoyed that he didn't get to relax on his comfortable branch. "Safe from what?"

"The Fire King. Who else?" Skyra frowned and sat on the ground. "When the war was over and Emberania ruled, he sent hunters to destroy the last of the royal family. That's you and me, Nebby."

"Hm..." Neblix thought about this very deeply. This was all so quick for him. Discovering that he was prince of a civilization not known to earth? "This is... intriguing."

"So it is." Skyra smiled at him. "You'll get used to it."


	4. The Key That Locked The Memories

Love of Ice and Fire

The Key That Locked The Memories

Tale 1

--

Neblix The Wolf and Skyra The Wolf belong to me.

All others belong to Sega.

--

**By the way, when I want to insert small notes into the story, I will write "O.T.: ... " Which means Off Topic.**

(Spirit World

Neblix sat by his tree, fascinated by the amazing tales of his own world and his own life. How he used to do things that he knew he could do but never knew how he knew he could do them. (O.T.: Boy, that's a difficult sentence!) During the war, if the kingdom was not currently under attack, the citizens and people of the castle acted as they would if there was no war at all. He learned how great his father king was, what kind of things Skyra learned from him, and what his mother was like. That was Neblix's favorite part. His mother was fun-loving and caring, and she was always with Neblix wherever he went. She always sang so he could sleep well when he was little. As the stories told of later parts in his life, his own memories of the times flooded back to him. Soon, Neblix had every one of his memories back. Skyra had been telling him these stories for the past 3 months. She told him what it was like being a spirit, her experience of guiding him to survive, and, at Neblix's surprise, his powers.

"YOU can tell me about my powers?" Neblix laughed, after listening to an hilarious story of when Skyra accidentally set fire to the royal kitchen.

"I gave them to you, ya know!" Skyra grumbled loudly and put her hands on her hips.

"Well, yeah, I know _that_!" Neblix replied, sitting down on the rocky path by his tree. "I was just surprised, that's all. I never knew how I could use them, or where they came from."

"Well, you know all that Kung Fu ya do? You were taught that when you were two."

Neblix almost jumped. "ALL of that when I was two?!"

**INTERRUPTION:**

**An entire style of Kung Fu in REAL LIFE takes about thirty years to master. I should know, I take Kung Fu now!**

**END OF INTERRUPTION.**

"Yuppity. Since you barely knew you even were alive, we thought it best to store all of it into your mind using a spell created by the royal librarian who was a magician fox. After that, your mind became incapable of limiting its own knowledge limitations. That's why you remember every second of your life so vividly now!" She cheered.

"But that completely messes everything up! I mean, how did I lose my memory, then?" Neblix asked.

Skyra sighed and closed her eyes. Shrugging, she said, "I dunno."

He put his his head down and mumbled, "Oh."

"I think it has something to do with you're journey through the Dimension Portal, though." She raised her head suddenly.

"You mean when I was thirteen and crossed through that blue wormhole thingamajig? Maybe." He recalled back to the time a few days after his birthday, celebrated and known by no one. He was walking through the treeless outskirts of Frostaria, all alone with only the ice spirit silently watching him. The memory seemed so nice to play through. All of them did. He would walk around a big glacier to find a blue portal, getting sucked in after walking too close to it. He would be spawned into the tree where he now lived, and he would live the rest of his life in the world known to him as "Me'kraia" which meant "Strange World" in the Ancient Frost Language. However, he discarded that ludicrous name when he lost his memory. He remembered waking up one day to find a blue cat smiling at him and rubbing his head... _rubbing his head._

"AZULA!!!" His entire body jolted with a realization. His sudden jerk caused him to also smack his head into the tree behind him.

"WHAT?" Skyra was caught completely off guard and fell over, startled at Neblix's sudden jolt. She crawled over and rubbed the spot gently where he had bruised his skull. "W-who?"

"Azula, she was one of my friends long ago..." Neblix's face grew dark and halted himself. "I'll tell you about it later." _Why was Azula rubbing his head in such a strange manner long ago? And why did he not realize it sooner? Azula had the power of mind control!_

A great deception spun long ago had all knots untied except for one. The final, decisive knot that proved what kind of person Azula really was. A knot thought to be impossible to untie until now. And Neblix had just untied it.

---

This is the last chapter of The Love of Ice and Fire: Tale 1. Look out for The Prince's Beginning: Tale 2, which explains Neblix's earlier times, including the deception of Azula. After The Prince's Beginning, I'll continue this storyline with The Love of Ice and Fire: Tale 3.


End file.
